Introduction : Municipal government scholarships for the purpose of support of rural health & medically underserved areas has increased, but repayment exemption conditions of the scholarships vary. We conducted a survey of scholarships to clarify their impact on physician careers.
Methods : A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from November 2013 to January 2014 among municipal governments administering scholarships associated with selective medical school admissions for medically underserved areas in 2013.
Results : There were 59 scholarships administered by 42 municipal governments connected with 53 universities. The mode of the total loan amount was 14.4 million yen. Features of the loan agreements were a high repayment interest rate (over 10%) in 70% of the scholarships and a requirement for lump-sum repayment in 41 scholarships. Three programs allowed free choice of residency training for 3 years or more during the obligatory term, while 48 programs did not allow such choice during the entire obligatory term.
Conclusion : Eighty-percent of the scholarship programs do not allow for the minimum 3 years of basic post-graduate training required by specialty training program guidelines. In order to prevent the anticipated reduction in future applicants to these scholarship programs, appropriate interest rates, repayment rules, and allowance for specialty training are required.

Introduction : Selective admission for medically underserved areas (Chiiki-Waku) has been increasing, but qualifications vary. We investigated the current state of these selective admissions to gain a better sense of their nature and to elucidate problems.
Methods : A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 77 medical schools that accepted applications for selective admission for medically underserved areas in 2013.
Results : There were a total of 1305 applicants for 148 slots at 62 universities. We observed 86 admissions at national universities, and 90 admissions through recommendation/ admissions office-based entrance exams. Thirty programs placed restrictions on employment after graduation, 84 required accepting scholarships, 8 required joining a specific organization as a condition in the pledge and 83 placed limits on place of origin of the applicant. Only 13 programs had special curricula for education in community medicine.
Conclusion : In some Chiiki-Waku, problems such as restriction on employment, the obligation to accept scholarships, and other inappropriate conditions were noted. Definition of students from rural backgrounds in Japan differs from the WHO guideline definition. Few programs offer special curricula covering community medicine.

Introduction : Japanese elderly men tend to refuse social network even if they need to use them. The objective is to explore Japanese elderly men's perceptions of social network including daycare services.
Methods : Qualitative studies using focused group and semi-structured interviews for elderly men more than seventy-five years old who live in Nagi-cho, Okayama, Japan were conducted.. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data analysis was done with modified grounded theory approach.
Results : Three categories were made as internal factors (role seeking, adapt aging), relationship factor (female attendance, staff communication), and external factor (transportation, economy).
Conclusion : By conducting intervention focusing on causes of relationships and external factors inclusive of day care services , it may be possible to improve social involvement of elderly men. 10 proposals were made to government.

To study the age difference in sweating during muscular exercise, two series of experiments were conducted under constant climatic conditions (29 ± 1°C DB, 60 ± 5 % RH, 0.45±0.05 m/sec air flow) . In series A, 7 to 20 years old male subjects undertook 5-minute running or pedalling of a bicycle ergometer in various seasons. In this series of experiments, pectoral sweat volume, sweat chloride concentration, rectal and mean skin temperatures were in general determined every 5 minutes and, when necessary, the total body sweat volume was calculated from the body weight loss. In series B, the age difference in the sweating in relation to physical training was studied. Subjects, 3 to 20 years old received experimental physical training of 5-minute or 500m-running. Before and after the training, a work load of 3- or 5-minute outdoor running was assigned to them. Furthermore, before and after the training, 10 and 11 years old subjects were given a fixed mechanical work rate on a bicycle ergometer. In these experiments, most of the parameters described above were measured. In series A, age differences in sweating during exercise were noticed to be dependent on the intensity of work load between pre- and post-adolescents. When the work load was heavy enough to cause a rapid increase in rectal temperature, the sweat volume became significantly less, the mean skin temperature was far higher, and the sweat chloride concentration was remarkably smaller in the pre-adolescent subjects than in the post-adolescent ones. In series B, an age difference in the effect of physical training was also found on sweating during exercise. The effect of physical training on sweating in the pre-adolescent individuals was generally less significant than in adults and sometimes showed a different pattern from that of adults. From these results, it can be concluded that sweating in the pre-adolescents is less adaptive, particularly to continuous severe exercise and that physical training is less effective in them than in the post-adolescents.

The physical work load of farmers and dust conditions in the harvesting process of chrysanthemums were investigated for two households (seven workers for A and three for B household, respectively) at mid March in 1984.
The total working hours a day of each household were 3225 min (460 min as average per a worker) for A and 1954 min (652 min) for B, being allotted more times to males than females. However, all of the house keeping hours were carried out only by females.
The intensity of each working load of farmers was not so heavy, as “light” and “moderately heavy” by Christesen's criteria and energy expenditure a day was calculated 2895-3604 kcal for males and 2155-2295 kcal for females.
In this working process farmers were enforced to keep careful handling with chrysanthemums and fixed body posture for 4 to 6 hours a day. Particulary, the working posture of sorting and bundling chrysanthemums may cause over strained load to the muscle and joint of the lower back and legs.
The dust concentrations of the sorting room were not so high. However, the farmers were exposed a large quantity of cilia of chrysanthemum leaves, calculated 37-259 pieces/cm² on the slide grass a day. The numbers of cilia varied with amounts of handling chrysathemums.
It was suggested that the cilia of chrysanthemums may be the most important allergen to the immediate type of allergy of the chrysanthemum growers.

To review the outcome of our vaccination program against influenza, an investigation was made into the incidence of this acute infectious disease in our community from 2002 through 2004.Enrolled for this retrospective study were 1) all vaccinated individuals, 2) those who underwent nasal examinations by use of the swab, and 3) patients diagnosed as contracting influenza.The number of those administered with influenza virus vaccines increased year after year during the period under review. Over 70% of them were those aged 65years or above. The mean age of those who caught influenza was 42.9±21.3 in 2002, 34.9±20.4 in 2003 and 45.4±20.2 in 2004. Compared with unvaccinated old people, many unvaccinated young and middle-aged people contracted influenza, but among the vaccinated old people, there were some who came down with the flu.Morbidity was low for the old people whose vaccination rate was high.Therefore, it can be said that vaccination was effective in achieving adequate immunity. Nonetheless, for all the preventive injection, the fact that people of advanced age could be infected should be taken note of.
Influenza ; Vaccination ; Retrospective Studies ; Review [Publication Type] ; Hospitals

We evaluated the interview skills of 46 sixth year medical students (32 men, 14 women) in our outpatient clinic. Six items were evaluated, including the manner in which students responded to patients, the number of times students interrupted patients' statements with closed-ended questions, and the extent to which students maintained eye contact with patients. We found that students interrupted patients every 46.2 seconds on average, and often did not make eye contact with tha patients. It became clear that, although we teach medical interview skills to students, students do not learn these skills very well. We suggest that in order to properly educate medical students, close cooperation between departments is needed.